"Because it shows--it shows--And it isn"t true. Do you suppose I don"t know what"s been going on inside you? I was blind to myself, my dear, but I saw through you."
"Saw through me?" She thought again of Ralph.
"Through and through."
"I didn"t know I was so transparent. But I don"t see that it matters much if you did."
He smiled at her delicious naivete.
"No. Nothing matters. Nothing matters, Barbara, except our caring. At least we"re wise enough to know that."
"I shouldn"t have thought," she said, "it would take much wisdom."
"More than you think, my child; more than you think. You"ve only got to be wise for yourself. I"ve got to be wise for both of us."
She thought: "Heavy parent. That comes of being adopted."
"When it comes to the point," she said, "one can only be wise for oneself."
"I"m glad you see that. It makes it much easier for me."
"It does. You mustn"t think you"re responsible for me just because you"ve adopted me."
"Don"t talk to me about adoption! When you know perfectly well what I did it for."
"Why--what _did_ you do it for?"
"To make things safe for us. To keep f.a.n.n.y from knowing. To keep myself from knowing, Barbara. To keep you.... But it"s too late to camouflage it. We know where we stand now."
"I don"t think _I_ do."
"You do. You do."
Mr. Waddington tossed his cigarette into the fire with a pa.s.sionate gesture of abandonment. He came to her. She saw his coming. She saw it chiefly as the approach of a canary yellow waistcoat. She fixed her attention on the waistcoat as if it were the centre of her own mental equilibrium.
There was a bend in the waistcoat. Mr. Waddington was stooping over her with his face peering into hers. She sat motionless, held under his face by curiosity and fear. The whole phenomenon seemed to her incredible.
Too incredible as yet to call for protest. It was as if it were not happening; as if she were merely waiting to see it happen before she cried out. Yet she was frightened.
This state lasted for one instant. The next she was in his arms. His mouth, thrust out under the big, rough moustache, was running over her face, like--like--while she pressed her hands hard against the canary yellow waistcoat, pushing him off, her mind disengaged itself from the struggle and reported--like a vacuum cleaner. That was it. Vacuum cleaner.
He gave back. There was no evil violence in him, and she got on her feet.
"How could you?" she cried. "How could you be such a perfect pig?"
"_Don"t_ say that to me, Barbara. Even in fun.... You know you love me."
"I don"t. I don"t."
"You do. You know you do. You know you want me to take you in my arms.
Why be so cruel to yourself?"
"To myself? I"d kill myself before I let you.... Why, I"d kill you."
"No. No. No. You only think you would, you little spitfire."
He had given back altogether and now leaned against the chimneypiece, not beaten, not abashed, but smiling at her in a triumphant cert.i.tude.
For so long the glamour of his illusion held him.
"Nothing you can say, Barbara, will persuade me that you don"t care for me."
"Then you must be mad. Mad as a hatter."
"All men go mad at times. You must make allowances. Listen--"
"I won"t listen. I don"t want to hear another word."
She was going.
He saw her intention; but he was nearer to the door than she was, and by a quick though ponderous movement he got there first. He stood before her with his back to the door. (He had the wild thought of locking it, but chivalry forbade him.)
"You can go in a minute," he said. "But you"ve got to listen to me first. You"ve got to be fair to me. I may be mad; but if I didn"t care for you--madly--I wouldn"t have supposed for an instant that you cared for me. I wouldn"t have thought of such a thing."
"But I _don"t_, I tell you."
"And I tell you, you do. Do you suppose after all you"ve done for me--"
"I haven"t done anything."
"Done? Look at the way you"ve worked for me. I"ve never known anything like your devotion, Barbara."
"Oh, _that_! It was only my job."
"Was it your job to save me from that horrible woman?"
"Oh, yes; it was all in the day"s work."
"My dear Barbara, no woman ever does a day"s work like that for a man unless she cares for him. And unless she wants him to care for her."
"As it happens, it was f.a.n.n.y I cared for. I was thinking of f.a.n.n.y all the time.... If _you"d_ think about f.a.n.n.y more and about Mrs. Levitt and people less, it would be a good thing."
"It"s too late to think about f.a.n.n.y now. That"s only your sweetness and goodness."
"Please don"t lie. If you really thought me sweet and good you wouldn"t expect me to be a subst.i.tute for Mrs. Levitt."
"Don"t talk about Mrs. Levitt. Do you suppose I think of you in the same sentence? That was a different thing altogether."
"Was it? Was it so very different?"
He saw that she remembered. "It was. A man may lose his head ten times over without losing his heart once. If it"s Mrs. Levitt you"re thinking about, you can put that out of your mind for ever."